Ann Grodzins Gold: Sexuality, Fertility and Erotic Imagination in Rajasthani Women’s songs

Studies on South Asian societies portray a cultural image of the Hindu women as inherently split and
ambivalent. This idea emerges from two perspectives:

 Deep disjunction between women’s sexual potency and their procreative and nurturing
capacities. Eg. Kali and the well-groomed Lakshmi
 Contrast between the domestic and ritual roles within the kinship system

Gold states the women unconsciously bridge and undermine such splits with alternating views – linking
sexual union with procreation – playing multiple parts as they pass through life-stages between natal
and marital homes, and do not perceive it as ultimately conflicting.

This article explores the question of women’s sexuality and their fertility through a study of women’s
songs in Ghatiyali village, in Rajasthan, revealing female self-images that are simultaneously erotic as
well as motherly.

Here she looks into the case of split image as made by three scholars: Sudhir Kakar (a psychoanalyst),
Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (a Sanskritist and historian), and Lynn Bennett (an anthropologist).

Sudhir Kakar: Highlighted on the disjunctions between a good mother and a bad mother, based on the
ideal of female purity and chastity as qualities desired against their rampant sexuality. However, his
sources were mostly secondhand and were based on male-centred ethnographies. His recent works also
look into the split between women as ritual partners and mothers and women as sexual beings

Wendy Doniger O’ Flaherty: studied the Upanishads to find the split in terms of women’s roles, which
also reflected in behavior patterns of women in real life. ‘Devi’ in her full form contains both aspects of
female divinity. But the goddess is split by her worshippers, and the author of the Sanskrit texts who
were largely male.

Lynn Bennett: her anthropological studies focus on the split between two opposing perceptions of
women in kinship systems – that between the role of the wife and the sister. She also agrees that such
oppositions are Hindu male’s perspective on women.

All three of the scholar point to a disjunction/ split that exist between the roles of women in terms of
their sexuality and fertility. Howevver, this split image, as Gold reflects, is gathered from a male
perspective. Gold’s perspective instead, in this article, relates to the oral traditions of Rajasthani
women, a folk tradition that contrasts with the textual, Sanskritic idea of womanhood.

Rural north India, Gold explains, is a highly segregated society, where the tone of social interaction of
women is based on this very idea of segregation. However, one can find that form of social interaction
goes beyond this idea of segregation in the sphere of folk traditions. As she says, women may not sing
with men, but they often sing at them and very often in close proximity with them. These folk songs of
Rajasthan therefore overcome the split image by alternate images that are simultaneously seductive
and fertile, erotic and domestic.

Songs by the women of Ghatiyali village express debates, misunderstandings, conflicts and confusion,
and other conversations that would not take place in real life. These songs imagine situations, rather
than replicating human interaction. Lack of communication and all other kinds of stress find their
Ann Grodzins Gold: Sexuality, Fertility and Erotic Imagination in Rajasthani Women’s songs
representation in these songs. And it is through these songs that the stressful situations are eased, the
complaints and injustices done against them are expressed, the dominance of men is defied and love
and contact is established. Women who sing such songs however, in terms of their daily life, again justify
the ideal standards of modesty, chastity and shame as required of the Hindu wife. Gold thus maintains
that there is a coexistence of such images, of another worldview alongside the textual image, as
reflected in these songs.

Two categories of songs: Gali and kesya. Gali refers to verbal abuse, mostly sexually oriented; and kesya
is sung on specific annual festivals and the change of seasons. The themes include, 1) ‘wrap’ garment for
all married and adult women, and 2) birth, sexuality, and erotic sensibility interwoven in traditional
lores.

1) Wraps symbolize feminine modesty. The chundari or orhni allows the woman to protect herself
from unwanted male attention and allows men to be protected from the overexposure of
women. However, in the context of folk songs, these wraps become an agent of expressing
casual romantic or sexual activity. Coverings are not opaque, and these songs talk about
imaginary situations from the women’s perspective where these coverings can also be
unwrapped. Through these songs therefore, the sources of sexual modesty can also become
sources of allurement and manipulation.
2) Songs on birth, sexuality, and erotic sensibility reflect about the mystery, pain and delight
concerning conception and birth. And also the formal and intimate relations between the
husband and wife.

These songs and their verbal expressions therefore reveal examples from within women’s performance
traditions that contradict the split-image imposed on them. Unlike the split image theory, which
emphasize on one dominant perspective – high-caste male, and Sanskritic, these performance traditions
by women serve a source of cultural alternative, contradictory to the prevailing stereotypes. Dealing
with bodily processes, these songs highlight on the loudest and boldest characterization of female
identity. They also throw light on the understanding of gender in the Hindu world.

Citing examples of i) anthropological and historical works carried out exploring folk traditions in South
India in which Tamil poetry can be classified into two gendered categories of the exterior and the
interior (associated with women), ii) nineteenth century Bengal where in the absence of formal protest
by women, one can find documents that offered women a space of dissent, and iii) of differing localized
versions folk epics in Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, Gold highlights on the tendency to neglect and
avoid women’s perspectives and folk traditions, in the understanding of gender, that has led to the
construction of a split-image of women.

Rather than demanding for an exclusive attention on the women’s worldview or her perspective, she
states that both visions coexist and are available to both the sexes. Through the study of the
performance tradition of women in Rajasthan, Gold thus asserts that the image of the female gender in
South Asia, is thus more unified than split.
Ann Grodzins Gold: Sexuality, Fertility and Erotic Imagination in Rajasthani Women’s songs